Report 1575
Report #1575 Skillset: Skill: Fires/Vines Org: Hartstone Status: Completed Dec 2016 Furies' Decision: Solution 1. Problem: Fire and vine spreading "conflict" mechanics do not increase participation in active conflict mechanics or create incentives to engage with other players. As these disruptive mechanics spread automatically from a single attacker, long after that attacker was present, it takes a small investment of time with zero risk on the part of a provocateur to tie up resources or large amounts of time and effort on the part of 'defenders'. Combined with Avenger mechanics, this encourages 'hit-and-run' terror tactics with no goal besides disrupting play in affected territories. The only potential deterrant against rampant fire/vines starting is the promise of mutually assured destruction, which itself is problematic for at least three reasons. First, as mentioned these mechanics encourage hit-and-run so it's not necessarily clear who started the disruption. Second, it potentially implicates an entire half of the game who had no hand in creating the problem and who don't necessarily have any tools to prevent their own faction members from doing so because... Third, MAD is at the organizational level and the people who set off fires/vines tend to do it purely for the troll factor, just to disrupt and control other people's play. Incident after incident has proven that these players will continue to be disruptive no matter what org they are in and no matter what sanctions come down on their heads from said org, provided they can be identified at all. Throw into that the disjunction between orgs (like Serenwilde) who would in character love for their enemies to be overrun by vines and players who recognize that these mechanics are awful, pointless wastes of fellow player's time and energy and you have an all around bad time. These mechanics need to become actual points of engagement for players who want to make attacks on prime territories or go away. R: 4 Solution #1: Remove spreading vines. Remove Meteor Storm's fire starting. Remove the spreading of any other player-started fires (Gaudi candle, dragon gauntlets). 1 R:10 Solution #2: Solution 1. In addition: Create a new power for Champions and Security called "Incursion". This costs the user's nexus 2000 power to start a 'fire' or spreading vines on a prime org territory and notes the user's names in the logs of the attacked territory. Fires and vines may be spread with a 6s channel, 10p from the edge of the incursion radius, extending the radius by 5 rooms out from the casting room. The discretionary powers that counter fires/vines slow the advancement to 3 rooms and slowly dispel the incursion effect from rooms that do not contain a member of the org performing the incursion. Incursion effects deal damage and a brief off-balance effect when they tic. Inside of an Incursion, normal avenger rules do NOT apply. The incursion ends if there are no rooms from which it can be spread. After the end of an incursion, no other incursion may be started in that territory for 7 IG months. 1 R:10 Solution #3: Do Solution 1 immediatly. Implement solution 2 as time permits. Player Comments: ---on 12/4 @ 05:06 writes: I think I'm okay with solution 1. I'm not sure of solution 2 necessarily solves the full problem, it makes it clear who 'attacked' you but I'm unsure what benefit it would add. I would propose another solution: allow abilities to start fires but prevent them from spreading or limit their spread to one adjacent room. That way if someone wants to light a whole area on fire they have to invest significantly more time than they currently do. ---on 12/6 @ 03:30 writes: The point is that it gives an outlet to people who want to start fights on Prime, but in a way that holds them accountable to the victimized org in terms of removing anonymity and forcing them to put themselves at risk AND too their own org as it costs power to start. It lets someone light an entire area on fire (and create a lot of mayhem besides) but they have to basically constantly be involved with it and put forwards not only org power but personal power and time. I'm not really okay with fires spreading at all with how quick, easy, and anonymous it currently is to start fires. If ANYTHING, fire starting - if utterly necessary for some inscrutable reason - should function as described in report 1044's solution 1 but as an organizational power with the requisite notes in the perpetrator's org logs AND the victim's logs. Anything else is not okay. ---on 12/6 @ 03:30 writes: And that sucks. ---on 12/6 @ 10:10 writes: How about giving each org a denizen who is on 'fire/vine watch' and will record the name of people meteoring / starting fires in the ord in the relevant org. Make that denizen sit atop some sort of tower/tree. Would keep the mechanic as such, but would make people accountable. Additionallmy may want the denizen shout 'fire/vines' to CT. ---on 12/6 @ 13:55 writes: That wouldn't solve any of the essential problems regarding time and effort required to start/end fires or vines. At that point you might as well put a note in the logs as noted. ---on 12/18 @ 16:16 writes: I don't particularly care for any of these solutions. Not supported. ---on 12/18 @ 18:46 writes: Alternate solutions?